Abstraction and Beauty
Beautiful thinking allows our imaginations a turn at the helm.
When I look at an abstract painting, I feel transported, given the gift of another way of seeing. When I paint abstracts, I let go of routine, rigidity, and process; I explore possibility, harmony, and beauty.
Abstraction is beguiling. When in the flow of painting, I am lost in solving the visual complexity of disparate forms, colors, and textures, searching for a framework with harmony. Leaning into the joy of painting abstracts, I find greater ease with complexity, I grow into new ways of looking and thinking.
When a painting connects with another person through its language of color, form, and line, it can be transformative. Like poetry which allows, in its abstraction, for multiple interpretations, abstract painting is a means to beautiful thinking*. By identifying with the gestural quality of a line, the ambiguity of a shape, the emotion of color, we get insight into ourselves and others, we allow for difference, and find a way to get comfortable with complexity.
*Beautiful thinking: Looking for the interconnectedness and interdependence of things. Describes transformative thought, an ability to glimpse our unfurling, growth, and interconnectedness.